


add a half

by sibley (ferns)



Category: Secret Six
Genre: Babies, F/F, Families of Choice, Hospitals, Multi, a very big bane holding a very little baby, starts out one pov then switches
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-01
Updated: 2018-10-01
Packaged: 2019-07-21 00:10:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16148465
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ferns/pseuds/sibley
Summary: One thing they've all agreed on is not to bring up how anxious Bane looks. He's made a permanent indent in the metal chair with his hands just by gripping them. This is just about the most stressed they've ever seen him, and that would be less frightening if he weren't massive.And in the end, it's all worth it.





	add a half

**Author's Note:**

> This is just me aggressively shoving one of my favorite Six headcanons down your throat. I'm not sorry because it's a great one.

“I’m going insane waiting here,” Lori announces, just like she has been for the last twelve minutes. She swings her legs a few times and almost kicks the back of Jeannette’s head by accident. “How long is this supposed to  _ take?” _

The top of her head is engulfed in a massive hand as Bane turns her by the skull to face him and shakes his head, frowning at her. He probably means for it to come off as gentle and reassuring, but it makes a nearby nurse drop her clipboard, face completely white, and back away into a side room where they can no longer see her. “Be patient, Black Alice. Babies take time.”

“Too  _ much  _ time,” Lori groans loudly, looking at Mary a little resentfully, since she was passed out on a bench. Or at least she  _ looked  _ like she was passed out on a bench. You could never really tell with her. “Why can’t I just go in there and-and I dunno, do some magic, and-”

“No,” Jeannette says firmly. Even sitting cross-legged on a hospital floor, she still looks dignified. Yes, even though Floyd is sitting halfway on her lap. Yes, even though there’s a little bit of what is either jam or blood or lipstick on her cheek that somehow no doctor has asked her about yet. “You will do  _ no  _ magic. Babies are fragile things. So are mothers.”

Lori knows she’s right, and she also knows that most of them probably realized that she wasn’t actually serious about trying to speed up labor using magic, but she groans and lets her head  _ thunk  _ back against the wall anyway. Ralph squeezes her ankle from across the room and she bumps her knuckles into his and starts a thumb wrestling competition. Not like there’s anything else to do.

One thing they all seemed to have agreed on, though, is not bringing up how anxious Bane looks. They’re not… Okay, they’re a little afraid of him, because it’s hard not to be. They trust him deeply, but he’s still the man who broke the Bat. They’re all pretty sure Scandal and her wives are the only ones who  _ aren’t  _ at least a little wary around him. Even Spencer is, albeit just because of the danger that he often brings home with him. They’re not concerned about him snapping and hurting somebody who works here in the hospital, or hurting one of them, or hurting a patient, they’re just… Worried. Bane is big. And he’s stressed. And he’s deadly. And that’s not the best combination for a hospital.

By the time Kani and Sue get back from where they were presumably looking at the babies that had already been born, Bane has made a permanent indent on the chairs he’s in by gripping the metal edge until it bent. This accidental and rather frightening display of force does approximately nothing to stop Sue from clambering into his lap, although it has caused pretty much everybody else to lean not-so-subtly away from him.

Lori wonders how they look. A massive man who was absolutely a supervillain even to an outside viewer with a tiny presumed-dead socialite in his lap, a scarred-up little girl asleep on a bench hugging both the sword she snuck in and a garden gnome to her chest a little ways away from him, an inexplicably shirtless man with his feet slung over the legs of a guy with admittedly not great facial hair who was sitting on a woman who looked like she could have stepped right out of a renaissance fair, and while Merkel was roaming the halls somewhere at the moment he only would have made them look more strange. At least they didn’t bring Nanaue.

And of course there’s her, Ralph, and Kani. Lori’s pretty sure she would be less conspicuous by far if she wasn’t thumb wrestling with Ralph from twelve feet away. Kani’s made the conscious effort to distance himself from them, sitting as far as he can from them and occasionally winking at a particularly cute nurse who’s scuttling down the hall, which makes him flush and duck his head and move faster. He’s probably bored. He’s definitely bored. Hell, they’re  _ all  _ bored. They’ve been here for hours already.

At some point, Mary wakes up and wanders over to Thomas, where she falls asleep again, using his discarded shirt as a pillow. He rubs her shoulder while talking to Floyd in low tones, and they all pretend that they can’t hear him using really stupid pet names that come out before he can really stop them, just like they always do. It’s getting tiring, at this point. It’s been  _ years,  _ and they all know, and it’s really kind of dumb that they haven’t said anything. Or maybe they’ve just realized that they don’t actually need to.

* * *

 

Lori doesn’t know when she falls asleep, but she’s woken up by Thomas nudging her awake, pulling her to her feet before she’s even properly up and tugging her along with the flow of the group. Merkel’s finally back, so that’s something, and he’s practically vibrating with excitement on the floor. Lori can’t help but be excited for this, too. They’ve technically been waiting nine months for this to happen.

Bane, of course, gets to go in first.

All three of them look exhausted, even though only one of them was actually giving birth. Scandal is clutching at Liana’s arm like it’s a lifeline, and Knockout looks like she’s about to collapse. Bane takes two seconds to hug Scandal tightly and whisper that he’s proud of her in her ear, and then looks at the newly-returned infant in Liana’s arms.

It’s bald, and its red-pink face is all screwed up, and while he doesn’t know too much about babies he’s fairly sure that it’s blind. He would perhaps like to say that it looks like Liana, or that it has some of Thomas’ facial features, but it doesn’t look like much of anything at the moment. It is just about the loveliest thing that he has ever seen.

“They said he’s on the big side,” Scandal says proudly, the fiercest lioness in their pride, as if the baby is not the smallest thing Bane has ever seen “You should have heard him screaming.” None of the three of them have taken their eyes off of it-off of him. A living, breathing thing. A  _ him,  _ at least for now. “...Would you like to hold him?”

Bane twitches. There is a part of him that wants to. But that part of him is overruled by the deep fear that something will go wrong, and he will  _ break  _ it. He does not want to break this baby. This baby who is to be named after him. This baby who is the reason why he gave Scandal and her wives his name.

Liana seems to sense his worry, because she smiles weakly and says, as she gently hands her son to Knockout, “It’s okay. You won’t hurt him.”

Apparently, a baby on the bigger side means that Bane needs to use one and a half hands instead of one. It makes a tiny gasping sound and does not open its tiny eyes, and something in his chest opens up. Something old and familiar and, maybe, just a little bit dangerous. “This child is mine,” he says heavily, and he knows that they understand, “just as you are mine, Scandal Savage.”

Knockout inclines her head to him slightly. A warrior’s acceptance, of sorts. Slowly and rather reluctantly, he hands the child back to Liana. Back to one of its mothers. The child that will bear his name. So tiny, and perfect, and so  _ breakable.  _ The child of warriors.

The rest of them pour in around him, finally, like water around a rock, and Liana looks overwhelmed enough that Scandal and Knockout move in unison to push them back. 

Jeannette smiles, sharp like a knife blade, when they do so, and it does not disguise the pride on her face, not even for a moment. Sue seems to be holding Ralph back from literally crawling into the bed to see the baby. Thomas and Jeannette are the only ones who can come closer, and Thomas seems like he wants them to pretend he’s not choking up. So they pretend.

“What’s its name?” Floyd asks, rather angrily trying to untangle a squealing Merkel’s hands from around his waist and failing.

Scandal looks at Bane and smiles.


End file.
